Author Topic: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity  (Read 20779 times)

Offline Phillip Dampier

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The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« on: January 05, 2007, 11:34:50 am »
You really can't do more to wimp up someone than to show them cutting up the Thanksgiving turkey in giant wedges with an electric carving knife.  Our Alma, in a relationship with probably the only guy in Wyoming who owned one of those things.  (My grandfather owned one when they were trendy in the late 70s/early 80s - my father refused to go near it using colorful language to describe the machismo factor in even owning one.)

And they made sure we knew in the film by showing the Alpha Male Slamdown at the Twist house in a contrast.  Let's get ready to slice, indeed!

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Offline SFEnnisSF

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2007, 01:41:50 pm »
So true, so true.

Offline Kazza

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #2 on: January 06, 2007, 08:45:39 pm »
It is a moment of levity indeed. Needed after the tension of the previous scene.

On a more personal note it always makes me smile because my Mum owned one of those electric knives back in the 80s. Lord above, we needed ear plugs when she carved a roast. It also left the meat with a strange zig-zag pattern on it.

Technological advancement isn't always a good thing.  :laugh:

Karen

Offline Ed59

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2007, 08:55:04 pm »
     
          Yes I remember my folks bought one of those things.And no my Dad would never use it!
   That had to be in the mid 70s as I was still at home.

         The scene with the electric knife did lighten things up a bit.


                                                                                 Ed

Offline Katie77

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2007, 09:33:08 pm »
Well, I still have an electric carving knife, and if I hadnt had one for the last ten years, I would not have ever cooked a roast dinner, because I hated carving meat with just an ordinary knife.

I recently bought one for my mum, because we go over there for a roast dinner nearly every Sunday, but I must admit, I wont let her use it, as she is 80, and I worry that she wont be able to manouvre it without cutting off a finger or something......so when we go over for dinner, I take on the job of cutting the roast.....with the electric knife.......it is so quick eand easy......

.......I thought EVERYONE owned and used one.....and when I saw it in the movie, I thought that was a pretty common occurence....
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Offline Phillip Dampier

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2007, 01:21:06 pm »
.......I thought EVERYONE owned and used one.....and when I saw it in the movie, I thought that was a pretty common occurence....

They were trendy back in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  Technology solving the problems of carving.  You mounted the holder on the wall in your kitchen and then plugged it in (they were cordless and you removed it when you needed to use it).  My grandfather used it for one or two Thanksgiving meals carving the turkey (my grandfather would have been horrified by the wedge hunks Alma's new husband was making) into wafer thin slices.  In our family, we always carved a plateful of meat - you didn't hack at the turkey when you wanted seconds - you cut the rest of the meat off after dinner and then either tossed the carcass or, inevitably, someone would want it to make stock or soup.

My father would never have anything of the sort in our house.  He used the carving knife and he was the only one allowed to use it.  I was amused with the alpha male scene in Jack's house because I've seen similar stuff in big family gatherings in my own life.  The man of the house was the only one allowed to carve the meat.  My mother woudn't touch his knives, nor would I.  TV was -always- forbidden at the dinner table when I was growing up, so there would not have been that competition.
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Offline Katie77

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2007, 04:12:57 pm »
Cordless.........now that would be helpful......even the one I bought for my mum recently, still has a cord.......and I am always wary that the cord is well out of the way, so it doesnt get sliced, and maybe electrocute me..

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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2007, 05:38:06 pm »
.......I thought EVERYONE owned and used one.....and when I saw it in the movie, I thought that was a pretty common occurence....

In the stratum of U.S. society to which my family belonged, the upwardly striving working class, I'd say it was a pretty common occurence, at least when it was, as Philip says, trendy in the late 1970s to early 1980s. Mom and Dad thought it was a Big Deal when they finally got one--only way my dad could cut decent, even slices--which might have had something to do with the propensity of the womenfolk in our family to roast meat and poultry till it just about fell apart.  ;D

I won't dispute that the electric knife may be intended to show poor Monroe as a wimp, but maybe, since that's Thanksgiving 1977, it also shows that he can give Alma the kind of trendy, up-to-date things that Ennis never gave her. Put another way, it may also speak to the economic factor in Alma's divorce of Ennis.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2007, 10:26:29 pm »
That, plus an electric knife is the domesticated, indoor, society way to cut up meat -- as opposed to cutting up a whole elk at the campsite.

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: The Infamous Electric Carving Knife - A Moment of Levity
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2007, 10:47:20 pm »
... maybe, since that's Thanksgiving 1977, it also shows that he can give Alma the kind of trendy, up-to-date things that Ennis never gave her. Put another way, it may also speak to the economic factor in Alma's divorce of Ennis.

That, plus an electric knife is the domesticated, indoor, society way to cut up meat -- as opposed to cutting up a whole elk at the campsite.


Good points, you two. :)